Today at 05:25 PM Stormy said this in Post #51
You have to believe what the Church comes up with in regard to itself.
(1) You have to believe that it is the only way to salvation. All other Christians only receive salvation by adoption of the Catholic Church.
I do not believe this.
Jesus said
I have given them the glory that you gave me that they may be one as we are one I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. (John 17: 22-23)
If Jesus WANTED thousands of different Churches all with different doctrines and Bible interpretations, why did He say otherwise?
(2) You must take into your beliefs whatever the Church or the Pope decides is true.
I can not relinquish the control of my Faith to anyone other than God.
Matthew 16:18
And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. 19 And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."
John 20:22
And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained."
1Ti 3:15
if I am delayed, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and bulwark of the truth.
Matthew 18.17: "If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church, and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax-collector."
(3) You believe that God speaks through your Pope to you.
I believe that God speaks directly to my heart and soul.
(4) You believe the Church is infallible.
I believe that we must be on constant alert. I trust no one totally.
(5) You totally must believe in all the Marian documents.
I honor Mary but I have no desire for anything even remotely resembling a goddess.
Basically I do not believe anything that the Church has came up with since Peter and Paul.
As far as I can see, there is one chain of conclusions from scripture:
1. Jesus founded One Church, and said that it should remain One. He did not want a divided and constantly splitting Church.
2. Jesus promised that the Church would be preserved in truth by the Holy Spirit and that He would remain with it until the "end of the age."
3. The Church Jesus founded was led by Apostles, who passed their Authority on to Bishops.
4. The earliest writings of the Church confirm that it took a Catholic view of Authority, the Sacraments, Church Order, Real Presence in Communion, Regenerative Baptism, Prayer for the Dead, the significance of Mary, the means of Salvation, and other doctrines.
5. There is no evidence of ANY group of Christians holding to the main Protestant teachings before 1520. Protestant teachings are therefore New to Christianity, even though they claim to be derived from Scripture.
6. New teachings, beyond those held by the Church are condemned in scripture.
7. The Protestant justification for the truth of their belief demands that Jesus's promises that He would remain with His Church forever, and that the Holy Spirit would guide it in truth, were false, since according to them, God abandoned the Church to error before 1520. This is not consistent with God's promises.
8. Since Protestant teachings have not been preached through all ages, as demanded by Scripture, Protestant teachings must, on this count alone, be false.
9. Only one Church was founded on the Apostles, remains in communion with the See of Peter, maintains Apostolic Succession, and has fulfilled the warrant of Scripture by preaching the
same doctrine to
all generations for 2,000 years, from Pentecost to the Present. The Catholic Church.